NOTHING HARDER

"Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery." 

Fyodor Dostoyevsky 

(Crime and Punishment, 1866)

Sadly, if we were to speak the truth always we would end up weirdos, all alone, despised, and rejected. Maybe the truth would lose its meaning, and become something totally bland.

Maybe the world would be a better place. I don't know.

I definitely agree with Dostoyevsky. There's a moral dilemma there. I am asking myself: do I have the right to speak the truth always, because I might hurt somebody's feelings. Therefore I avoid it all together. But does avoiding to tell the truth to someone makes me more moral? Or it makes me a lier, a hypocrite?

 

Turgenyev said this: the truth said at an inappropriate moment is as good as a lie.

Meaning, not everyone is prepared to hear the truth be it the truth about the world or themselves.

Anyway, for me, I prefer the truth about myself even if it's bitter, raw, unpleasant, especially if it comes from a well-meaning  person. Does that show my maturity? 

 I am not quite sure.

But I am convinced that this dilemma should I speak the truth, should I say what I really think or should I just let it slide is a struggle. The struggle to remain authentic and true to the child within. To protect the last pure thing we each possess inside.

When we fail to do so, we are just a bunch of hypocrites. Because there's no compromising with the truth. No gray areas.